Filed Under

Just three features ago, I demonstrated the Liquify filter, which I described as “one of Photoshop’s great destructive retouching tools” (see Feature #29: Liquify). The words one of implied that more were on the way, as they are, starting this week with two tools that recently rose like twin Pheonix from the ashes, dodge and burn.

Like Liquify, D&B permanently modify pixels in the interest of making those pixels look better than when they started. Both are brushes. The dodge tool brushes in brightness; the burn tool brushes in darkness.

The interesting thing about these tools is that they used to pretty well suck in Photoshop CS3 and earlier. Dodge acted a lot like painting white with the brush tool set to Overlay; burn acted a lot like painting black again set to Overlay. While the effects were not identical, they were so similar that many experts recommended you avoid D&B altogether and instead paint on an independent layer, set to Overlay, in the interest of working nondestructively.

In CS4, that changes. D&B are now much better at preserving native highlights and shadows. And both produce effects that are entirely unlike Overlay painting. Which is why they make the Photoshop Top 40 list today.

With their help, I was able to take this undeniably metrosexual but ultimately low-contrast dude (from SePp of microstock image vendor Folotlia):

And transform him into this deliciously Halloweeny cyborg:

Oh, sure, there’s a lot more going on here than dodging and burning. But D&B were the sturdy little rockets that got the effect off the ground.

That’s image #15773197

Is it possible?

Deke.. far be it from a mere student like me to point out an error that The Master has made. But I think at about 6:07 into this video, you were thinking backwards when you said the dodge tool will give you too much saturation and the burn tool will desaturate.

Not a member?Sign up for a free account to get commenting privileges, the ability to upload images, a subscription to our relatively infrequent newsletter, and the inherent desirability that comes with being a member of teamDeke.

Deke McClelland

Self-appointed expert on all things graphics and imaging, here to answer your questions and serve your needs. More dekeBio here.